Computers, televisions, remote controls, media players and other devices continue to become increasingly mobile. Consumers now use a wide variety of portable electronics devices, including laptop, tablet and other mobile computers, personal digital assistants, mobile television and computer displays, remote controls and the like. Although much emphasis has been place upon mobility throughout the neighborhood or country, the widespread adoption of wireless local area network (WLAN) and similar wireless technologies has allowed users to roam freely within a home, office or other relatively close environment. A tablet computer, for example, can now be conveniently carried from room-to-room or office-to-office to allow the user to work, surf the web or enjoy media content anywhere in the local area environment.
While the increased mobility provides convenience and flexibility, the mobile user often loses the ability to select preferences or other settings that are commonplace on more stationary devices. A media player used in a child's bedroom, for example, may be set to take advantage of parental controls or simpler user interfaces that may not be desired for a media player in a living room or other location in the home environment. If a portable media player is shared between a child's room and a living room, however, desired settings for the child's room can be lost or undesirably imposed upon locations where they may not be wanted. Other portable devices, including remote controls, may have other location-specific needs or benefits that are not being realized using current technology. More stationary devices (e.g., desktop computer systems, televisions, and the like) may have location-specific benefits or needs as well.
It is therefore desirable to create systems and methods that are able to conveniently determine the location of a device within a home, office or other environment. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section.